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Extremist links to Muslim Students Association not new; group has been monitored for years

Calgarian Salman Ashrafi, shown in a recently released 'martyr's notice,' was identified by the al-Qaeda splinter group ISIS being a suicide bomber behind a November 2013 attack in Iraq./Calgary Sun/QMI Agency

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MONTREAL — Eleven of Canada's highest-profile jihadi terrorists, terror suspects and alleged extremists have ties to the Muslim Students Association, a security conference has heard.

The data was presented on Thursday evening by the Canadian Military Intelligence Association in Ottawa, where three men were charged Tuesday with terrorism-related offences.

Suspect Awso Peshdary, 25, was an invited speaker of the Muslim Students Association at Ottawa's Algonquin College last year. He's accused of financing efforts to send recruits from Canada to Syria to join the Islamic State.

A second man, Khadar Khalib, 23, was a member of the same MSA and the third suspect, John Maguire, 24, attended MSA events at the University of Ottawa. The latter two are believed to be in Syria.

The 11 named at the security conference range from people, like Maguire, who reportedly attended a few MSA events, to top executives like former MSA leader Salman Ashrafi of Calgary.

He blew himself up in November 2013 in a double suicide bombing at an Iraqi military base, reportedly killing 46 people on behalf of ISIS.

Former friends in Lethbridge, Alta., say Ashrafi was very involved in the MSA.

The Muslim Students Association has operated on Canadian campuses since its inception the early 1960s when Canada's Muslim population numbered just a few thousand.

The number of MSA clubs is estimated at several hundred across North America, providing prayer space and social events as well as speeches by imams and other Islamic presenters.

Some MSA members had more sinister plans, however, including al-Qaida financier Ahmed Said Khadr, the now-deceased head of Canada's first family of terror and father of convicted killer Omar Khadr.

In her 2008 book entitled Guantanomo's Child, journalist Michelle Shephard said the father was radicalized at the University of Ottawa's MSA in the 1970s.

Ahmed Khadr was killed in a 2003 shootout with Pakistani security forces near the Afghan border.

The activities of former MSA members have also caught the attention of law enforcement south of the border.

The New York Police Department said in 2012 that it monitored MSA groups, individuals and online activity across the Northeast in 2006 and 2007.

The NYPD defended its operation by citing 12 convicted or suspected terrorists in the United States and abroad who had once been MSA members.

In its 2007 report, "Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat," the NYPD mentioned "radicalization that has permeated some Muslim student associations."

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Conservative think-tank Middle East Forum have all reported that the MSA was heavily financed by Saudi Arabia.

In its 2003 profile of the group, The Wall Street Journal noted that Saudi Arabia has "for decades has tried to inculcate young people with a fundamentalist and intolerant version of Islam."

E-mails to MSA's North American headquarters in Flint, Mich., were not returned by press time.

However, Adam Tulul, MSA president at Algonquin College, told QMI in an e-mail that the organization "unequivocally condemns violent extremism in all its forms."

He said anyone who opposes Canadian foreign policy should "channel their energies proactively by becoming engaged citizens who express themselves through peaceful means."

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Sidebar: 11 Canadian extremists and suspects with ties to Canada and the Muslim Students Association

Name: Ahmed Said Khadr

MSA affiliation: University of Ottawa

Details: Fundraiser, aid worker and close associate of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Died in a shootout with Pakistani police in 2003. Al-Qaida's "Book of 120 Martyrs in Afghanistan" includes a chapter on Ahmed Khadr and praises him for "tossing his little child (Omar) in the furnace of the battle."

Name: John "Yahya" Maguire

MSA affiliation: University of Ottawa

Details: Joined the Islamic State in 2012, and posted a propaganda video in Dec. 2014. Was reportedly killed in battle, but no official agency has confirmed his death.

Charged (in absentia) with participating in a terrorist group in Syria, Iraq and Turkey, conspiring with a terrorist network in Ottawa.

Name: Awso Peshdary

MSA affiliation: Algonquin College

Details: Arrested in Ottawa on Tuesday and charged with conspiracy to facilitate terror, accused of providing financial support to send homegrown jihadists abroad to Syria.

Name: Khadar Khalib

MSA affiliation: Algonquin College

Details: Left Canada in March 2014 to join the Islamic State. Charged (in absentia) with participating in a terrorist group in Syria and Iraq, and conspiring with Awso Peshdary and John Maguire. Charged with counselling a person to participate in terror.

Name: Qutbi al-Mahdi

MSA affiliation: McGill University

Details: Head of external intelligence in Sudan in the 1990s. Served under President Omar al-Bashir, who faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur crisis.

Name: Salman Ashrafi

MSA affiliation: University of Lethbridge, Atla.

Details: Carried out an Islamic State suicide bombing at an Iraqi military base in November 2013.

Name: Chiheb Esseghaier

MSA affiliation: University of Sherbrooke, Que.

Details: Currently on trial in Toronto for the failed 2013 Via Rail bomb plot, the first known al-Qaida plot against Canada.

Name: Youssef Sakhir, Samir Halilovic and Zakria Habibi

MSA affiliations: Facebook friends with the Sherbrooke MSA.

Details: Vanished from Quebec last year. Currently sought by RCMP and CSIS. Believed to be travelling overseas.

Name: Ferid Imam

MSA affiliation: University of Manitoba

Details: Former MSA president, wanted in Canada and the U.S. on terrorism charges for allegedly training others to blow up subway cars in New York City.

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SIDEBAR: WHAT THE NYPD SAID ABOUT MSA IN 2007:

"Among the social networks of the local university population, there appears to be a growing trend of Salafi-based radicalization that has permeated some Muslim student associations (MSAs). Extremists have used these university-based organizations as forums for the development and recruitment of like-minded individuals, providing a receptive platform for younger, American-born imams, to present a radical message in a way that resonates with the students."

"The Algonquin College Muslim Student Association (MSA) is shocked and deeply disturbed by news that individuals who had previously volunteered with the organization are now facing criminal charges.

The Algonquin College MSA unequivocally condemns violent extremism in all its forms regardless of who perpetrates it, or their stated reason(s).

Violent extremist ideology uses a cut-and-paste approach to our faith and distorts and perverts the teachings and example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Our advice to anyone with grievances about issues like Canadian foreign policy or the status of Muslims living in Canada and abroad is to channel their energies proactively by becoming engaged citizens who express themselves through peaceful means, as well as who work to positively contribute to their communities."